Former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley was under mounting pressure last night over the baby-deaths cover-up now dubbed the “NHS’s Hillsborough”.

The top Tory faces being dragged into an inquiry after claims that he tried to sack a whistleblower who told how bungling inspectors failed patients.

The revelation came after damning findings last week that a watchdog tried to destroy a report detailing its failure to expose dangerously bad care at a hospital where up to 16 babies died.

John Woodcock, the Labour MP representing families who lost babies at Furness Hospital in Cumbria, has said the inquiry must investigate the “murky” allegations of a wider cover-up.

He said last week’s report found the Care Quality Commission’s attempt to hide its failings “may constitute a broader and on-going cover-up”.

He added: “The more questions that are raised about this murky business, the more important it becomes to investigate it further, including who outside the CQC was aware and what they did.”

Mr Lansley allegedly told whistleblower Kay Sheldon he was considering sacking her after she raised concerns that the bungling Commission was putting patients at risk. The minister backed down.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham (Photo: Getty Images)

A new director of the Commission says the scandal over hospital failings and the cover-up are so serious they are the NHS’s own Hillsborough.

The baby deaths at Furness Hospital, run by Morecambe Bay Trust, meant no one in the NHS should escape scrutiny, said journalist Camilla Cavendish.

She added: “That is the lesson of Morecambe Bay, just as it was the lesson of Hillsborough.”

Labour’s former Health Secretary Andy Burnham also faces pressure after a letter from him emerged telling the care regulator in 2009 that its role was to “restore public confidence in the NHS”.

Mr Burnham strongly denied encouraging the Commission to tone down reports critical of the NHS. He said: “I never said to the CQC, ‘Don’t say that, do say the other.’ That wasn’t my role. They were an independent regulator.”

Mr Burnham said Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt must now release the Government’s internal report on the risks of overhauling the health service.

Mr Lansley, now Leader of the Commons, denied threatening to fire Ms Sheldon or knowing of the covered-up report.

* A midwife at Furness Hospital could be struck off after a police investigation into the deaths of Nittiya Hendrickson and baby Chester. Widower Carl, 46, says that he pleaded for doctors to be called when his wife became ill.